This workshop is about the promotion of life from a spiritual perspective. Through the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, a society emerged in order to address issues that youth are facing, such as self-esteem, identity, high pregnancy rates, drug abuse, and suicide. Through teachings of balance of spirit and physical, the Buffalo Dance society places healing in the hands of youth. This workshop will share with participants traditional knowledge from youth within the society on how they have experienced the Fast Life and the Wandering/Wondering stages of Life.

2. Zines and Chill

Marlo Corbiere, Eric Soucy

Participants will begin to construct their individualized zine using materials provided. Topic examples (Reconciliation, 150 years of Canada, self growth, mental health, funny experiences, personal journeys, stories, fiction, fantasy…ect). Participants can work on their own or in groups. Participants will gain knowledge about poetry, learn a new way of non verbal expression through creating zines. Connections will be established between workshop participants. Participants will leave feeling positive and with a sense of accomplishment.

3. Dancing Towards Reconciliation

Dana Scott Vanderburgh

Dance enables people with different cultures and backgrounds to both teach and learn with each other in a form that is easily accessed and understood, movement. It is important to recognize that we all have a body that produces meaning and as such, can use our bodies to communicate cross-culturally and to overcome seemingly unsurpassable barriers such as socio-economic class, language, culture and historically troubled relationships. In this workshop, participants will learn about the existing potential that the arts, especially dance, has for facilitating cross-cultural communication and reconciliation. The presenter will draw upon existing theories of communication, performance, conflict studies and more to provide an overview of how the arts/dance is well-suited to such goals. Moreover, the presenter will use her own experience with dance as a means of reconciliation and empowerment with indigenous and non-indigenous groups in the USA, Panama and Ghana to illustrate how other young people are practically using the arts for reconciliation in other contexts around the world.

4. Tobacco Cessation and Traditional Tobacco

5. Canadian Mental Health Association CMHA – Mental Health and Stigma

Taylor Demetrioff

This workshop explains the difference between mental health and mental illness while exploring coping strategies for individuals struggling with their mental health. The group will be introduced to “warning signs” and ways to help a friend or family member.

A Youth Council can bring energy and ideas to any organization or program, but developing one is often a difficult task. At Ma Mawi we developed the youth councils to help us steer the way we provide support to the youth in the community and for the youth to find their Voice. This interactive look at our Youth Council will teach the basics of youth engagement as well as offer a detailed look at developing and facilitating a youth council.

8. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

9. Access to Postsecondary Education

Michael Barkman and Greg Monias

Post-secondary education plays a vital role in society – enriching communities, empowering people, and reducing poverty and inequality. Educational institutions can be, and are, important homes to critical reconciliation work. However, education is inequitably accessed, particularly by marginalized communities. Led by leaders within Manitoba’s student movement, this workshop will focus on the issue of access to post-secondary education, and what students are doing, and can do, to build a more equitable country, where anyone has the chance to experience the empowerment that comes with a post-secondary education.

10. Neeched Up Games

Betty Pewapsconias and Janelle Pewapsconias

Encourage youth to share their stories and break down negative stigma’s they may have about their identity and give them tools to construct and empower their roles as youth leaders.

11. Creating Connections through Community Mapping

Roxanne Ma and Diane Hill

Community mapping is a visual representation of important places in a community. For example, a community map can show health services, schools, places where people meet, places where people socialize, and so on.

Community mapping values local knowledge and experience: people living in a particular community have expert knowledge of how issues affect their community and way of life. This activity joins people from various backgrounds together in learning, and prompting them to act on that learning. Community mapping provides a non-threatening way to start a discussion about sensitive subjects (like HIV), by allowing the creators to explore their concerns about their communities and what they would like to change.

This workshop will enable and empower Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to present, share, analyze, and enhance their knowledge of their living conditions, and to plan, monitor, reflect, and scale up community action.

WORKSHOP SESSION 2 – MONDAY

1. Traditional Games

Delano Kennedy

Teaching traditional games; an interactive workshop involving games on what life was like for indigenous peoples long ago and how we can bring these games back. Also, introducing participants to this culture to pass on knowledge to the next generation.

2. Non-Indigenous Role in Reconciliation

Guillaume Sirios

So what can we do (as non-Indigenous) to correct the wrongs of the past and the present? I think that reconciliation is without doubt a really important one. We have to listen to each other, we have to understand each other, and we have to genuinely love each other. This process has to be engaged by both parties in order to succeed. Also, it is really important that this process is engaged at the citizen level. We do not have to wait for the government and the institution to promote reconciliation with our neighbours. We can, and we have to do it by ourselves.Another moral obligation, and a more controversial one, is decolonization. I think that we must accept that we are still in a colonization era, and that we need to correct that. Even if it is not us who did implement these colonization laws and policy, most of them are still in place, and since non-Indigenous are still mostly in control of the decisions, they have to volontarily take down these colonizations laws and policy. There is also systemic discrimination in our institutions, as shown in the Val D’or crisis, and that has to be corrected. To me, the reconciliation process is pretty much like the reconciliation process between two brothers or two sisters. Imagine one brother hurting the other. What should he do now? Stay in his corner and wait for the pain of its brother to heal? Or come back to him and apologize and try to reconstruct the relation they had? I think the latter is the right answer. It is a complicated process indeed, but I think that bringing it to the personnal level can help to better understand the role of each nation (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in this process.In this workshop, I will bring my experience as a young leader of the reconciliation proccess and I will try to explain why and how I think we should promote reconciliation.

3.Words of Healing

Maggie Kyle and Huda Sadoon

The workshop will begin by presenters sharing their own poetry and discussing how they have used poetry as a form of social change. They will then share ideas of how creativity is needed in the education system and how poetry can be used in academic settings. They will then encourage the participants to become engaged in the workshop through writing letters of reconciliation. These letters will then be turned into communal poetry and the group creating a collective piece of artwork. The workshop will finish by a sharing circle where participants are encouraged to share how poetry and art can be relevant, viable, and implemented in their communities as forms of reconciliation and social change.

4. Traditional Beading Workshop

Joey Mackinaw

5. Canadian Mental Health Association CMHA – Mental Health and Stigma

Taylor Demetrioff

This workshop explains the difference between mental health and mental illness while exploring coping strategies for individuals struggling with their mental health. The group will be introduced to “warning signs” and ways to help a friend or family member.

6. Manitobah Mukluks – Storyboot Mini-Moccassin Craft

Sarah Brazauskas

Mini-moccassin crafts that can be earrings or keychains.

7. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

8. Land Violence is Gendered Violence

Denise Miller and Sheridan Martin

During the summer of 2016, the four of us were tasked with the responsibility of finding ways to implement the TRC Calls to Action at the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant – a daunting task that would realistically take years to complete. Our team, composed of Indigenous and settler youth, worked tirelessly throughout the summer to complete this task, while learning many lessons along the way about allyship, leadership and the power of youth. We would like to share the knowledge that we learned with participants at the conference about the connection between land and gendered based/sexual violence, with emphasis placed on resource extractive industries and consent. We would like to challenge the mainstream notion of gendered-based violence, with strong hopes that the gender-based violence movement (particularly within sexual assault centres and post-secondary institutions) moves away from settler perspectives and norms as we move forward. Throughout this interactive conversation, we are hoping to provide tools and resources for youth to challenge these perceptions and movements within Igniting the Spirit and Flame of Youth Entrepreneurs

9. How to be a Human Rights Defender

Cassondra Bright

This three hour youth led* workshop will arm youth participants with the knowledge and skills to assert and advocate for human rights. This interactive workshop will introduce youth to human rights concepts and laws using the “Human Rights Defenders” game (more information below). Participants will hear from other youth about their experiences with human rights and examine the importance of taking a leadership and advocacy role in advancing human rights. There will also be a dramatic component as the youth presenters will demonstrate how to use your voice when faced with discrimination or inequality. Youth participants will also be given the opportunity to share their own ideas about human rights and the issues under discussion during a closing circle.Workshop participants will receive a handout with strategies for speaking out when they feel their human rights are not being respected, as well as human rights-related swag. There will also be a prize for the winning team of Human Rights Defenders, during the game portion of the workshop. About the “Human Rights Defenders” game:The Canadian Human Rights Commission has developed a new game called Human Rights Defenders. Geared toward youth, the Game incorporates a number of different elements to make learning about human rights informative and fun! The game incorporates guidance from Indigenous Elders and features many Indigenous cultural influences. For example, the circular game board incorporates the Medicine Wheel and features a turtle at the centre to represent Turtle Island. The “Human Rights Defenders” game also features animal guide characters with special powers that players can use throughout their journey. Four categories of questions focus on Human Rights Basics, Indigenous Human Rights, Human Rights in Action and Human Rights Defenders. Although people can play the game individually, it is more suited for teams and encourages creative team work throughout. The goal of the game is to raise awareness and understanding of human rights, particularly with respect to Indigenous rights, by collecting cards with every right answer. Everyone wins as they improve their knowledge and awareness of human rights. *The workshop will be led by two students/youth who are currently working for the Canadian Human Rights Commission and an Indigenous Commission employee/mentor will be there to assist if needed.

10. Discussing Decolonization of 2-Spirit Identity

Teddy Syrette

This interactive workshop will explore 2 Spirit and Queer-Indigenous Identity, when it comes to reconciliation and decolonization. Youth will be able to share their feelings, thoughts and stories about gender, sexuality and colonization. Participants will create ‘word clouds’ and build a narrative around intersecting identities, when it comes to culture, identity, spirituality, gender, gender expression, sexuality and community.

11.Hoop Dancing

Shanley Spence

The workshop will begin with an engaging short story telling portion to explain the importance, teachings and meanings behind the traditional hoop dance and what it could mean to them (the youth/the audience). To showcase how the understanding of dance is important for reconciliation and balance for the past, present and future. The youth will then have a chance to try hoop dancing and engage themselves in the process of indigenous dance which will then end with an exciting full performance of the hoop dance. All accompanied with live drumming.

WORKSHOP SESSION 3- MONDAY

1. Neeched Up Games

Betty Pewapsconias and Janelle Pewapsconias

Encourage youth to share their stories and break down negative stigma’s they may have about their identity and give them tools to construct and empower their roles as youth leaders.

2. Decolonizing Mental Health

Cam Jette and Dani Lanouette

A discussion group focusing on the mental health system and how to reclaim the traditional practices in order to rework the system to benefit indigenous and non indigenous people struggling with mental health issues and mental illness.

3. Discussing Decolonization of 2-Spirit Identity

Teddy Syrette

This interactive workshop will explore 2 Spirit and Queer-Indigenous Identity, when it comes to reconciliation and decolonization. Youth will be able to share their feelings, thoughts and stories about gender, sexuality and colonization. Participants will create ‘word clouds’ and build a narrative around intersecting identities, when it comes to culture, identity, spirituality, gender, gender expression, sexuality and community.

4. The Art of Listening

Samantha Martin-Bird

One of the biggest deterrents to meaningful dialogue on racial justice is the tendency of individuals to interrupt, interject, and respond before understanding one another. If we can learn how to listen well, then we are one step closer to engaging our friends and colleagues on matters of institutionalized discrimination and prejudice.

5. Dancing With Krystal Riverz

Krystal Riverz

We connect with the drums of our heart first through movement, exercises, smudge and prayer. Once connected to our heart and coming together in one mind, we connect with the drum of the music by moving together with various pow-wow dance style steps incorporated with top rock dance steps of hip-hop. We freestyle movements after various steps are offered, either in a cipher or moving together in a circle. We can switch between pow-wow and hip-hop or bring them together through freestyle movement.

6. How to Care for your future self | Reflective Self and Community Care Practices

4R’s – Nikeeta Tabobundung, Hana Renglich

7. Canadian Mental Health Association CMHA – Mental Health and Stigma

Taylor Demetrioff

This workshop explains the difference between mental health and mental illness while exploring coping strategies for individuals struggling with their mental health. The group will be introduced to “warning signs” and ways to help a friend or family member.

8. Manitobah Mukluks – Storyboot Mini-Moccassin Craft

Sarah Brazauskas

Mini-moccassin crafts that can be earrings or keychains.

9. How to be a Human Rights Defender

Cassondra Bright

This three hour youth led* workshop will arm youth participants with the knowledge and skills to assert and advocate for human rights. This interactive workshop will introduce youth to human rights concepts and laws using the “Human Rights Defenders” game (more information below). Participants will hear from other youth about their experiences with human rights and examine the importance of taking a leadership and advocacy role in advancing human rights. There will also be a dramatic component as the youth presenters will demonstrate how to use your voice when faced with discrimination or inequality. Youth participants will also be given the opportunity to share their own ideas about human rights and the issues under discussion during a closing circle.Workshop participants will receive a handout with strategies for speaking out when they feel their human rights are not being respected, as well as human rights-related swag. There will also be a prize for the winning team of Human Rights Defenders, during the game portion of the workshop. About the “Human Rights Defenders” game:The Canadian Human Rights Commission has developed a new game called Human Rights Defenders. Geared toward youth, the Game incorporates a number of different elements to make learning about human rights informative and fun! The game incorporates guidance from Indigenous Elders and features many Indigenous cultural influences. For example, the circular game board incorporates the Medicine Wheel and features a turtle at the centre to represent Turtle Island. The “Human Rights Defenders” game also features animal guide characters with special powers that players can use throughout their journey. Four categories of questions focus on Human Rights Basics, Indigenous Human Rights, Human Rights in Action and Human Rights Defenders. Although people can play the game individually, it is more suited for teams and encourages creative team work throughout. The goal of the game is to raise awareness and understanding of human rights, particularly with respect to Indigenous rights, by collecting cards with every right answer. Everyone wins as they improve their knowledge and awareness of human rights. *The workshop will be led by two students/youth who are currently working for the Canadian Human Rights Commission and an Indigenous Commission employee/mentor will be there to assist if needed.

10. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

11. Igniting the Spirit

NAME

WORKSHOP SESSION 4- WEDNESDAY

1. Doing the Work: How -to-Guide

Sameh Helmy

During this workshop we will work with the participants to describe how to run engaging and effective workshops on the themes of reconciliation and decolonization. We will use examples of workshops we have organized in our area, events that were effective, different activities to get attendees engaged, and ways to talk about reconciliation in a quick but informative way.

2. Safe Space: An Act of Resistance Not Discrimination

Alexa Potashnik

Safe Space: An Act of Resistance Not Discrimination is a workshop that educates its audience on the need to maintain and create safer spaces for marginalized folks (i.e. racailized groups, Indigenous women, women of colour, new-comer communities etc…). The basis of the workshop is to both provide information on what Black Space has done in order to facilitate safer-spaces and to conduct an open dialogue on shared experiences of oppression working towards the advancement for marginalized communities. What we really want to state is the power imbalance structured throughout society and breaking don the roots of these said institutions (e.g. white/male privilege/supremacy/dominance). We’ve had great conversations and work in this field and would love to facilitate a broader discussion on how to create these spaces.

3. We Matter: Approaching Youth Hardship with Hope and Resilience

Tunchai Redvers

The workshop will be led by the co-founder of the We Matter Campaign, a national multi-media campaign to support Indigenous youth going through a hard time. It uses direct video, art, and poem messages to communicate to youth that no matter how hopeless or lonely things feel, there is always a way forward. The workshop will visually explore the historical structures that lead to the issues that many young people face today, such as bullying, drugs, and suicide. It will also explore how to challenge colonial narrative, and the narrative in many communities, using storytelling and hope. It will touch on the current stigmas surrounding mental health in communities, and how to challenge these stigmas by talking, trusting, and feeling. There will be use of current We Matter videos, a spoken word performance, large and small group discussion, and participants will engage in an interactive activity to create their own positive narrative and message of hope. Indigenous participants will be encouraged to think about how they can challenge common and unhealthy narratives in their own communities, and non-Indigenous participants will be encouraged to think about how they can challenge common and unhealthy narratives of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

There are few characters in Inuit mythology that make appearances all across the circumpolar regions. One of these figures is Kiviuq. He is an eternal Inuit wanderer whose travels and adventures are celebrated in Alaska, Inuit Nunangat, Greenland and Russia. His journey began when he was thrust from his home by an angry shaman seeking vengeance for her grandson by attacking the hunters of the village that bullied the boy due to his poverty. Kiviuq survives this attack, but finds himself lost and far from home. He then begins a long journey to find his way back. There is, perhaps, no better figure to represent the struggle of Inuit living in urban settings. As our people continue to occupy cities and towns all the way from St. Catherine’s, Ontario to Parksville, British Columbia, the need to discover ways to share and preserve Inuit culture becomes increasingly difficult. To address these challenges, Inuit communities are mobilizing themselves in urban centers across the country. This workshop will examine these emerging communities, the barriers they experience, and the need to preserve traditional Inuit knowledge, as well as acknowledge contemporary Inuit experience.

7. Canadian Mental Health Association CMHA – Mental Health and Stigma

Taylor Demetrioff

This workshop explains the difference between mental health and mental illness while exploring coping strategies for individuals struggling with their mental health. The group will be introduced to “warning signs” and ways to help a friend or family member.

8. Teen Talk

Vyki Atallah

This workshop helps youth to understand that mental health is a continuum that ranges from mental wellness to mental illness. We will look at some common signs of anxiety and depression as well as stress. We will practice a few stress-reducing tools. We address stigma associated with mental distress as well as suicide, explore self-care and coping strategies as well as where to get support and resources.

In this 4Rs session, we will be trekking through mental, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts of self. We are aiming to create a space of stillness and ease in the midst of Conference hustle and bustle. Through this 75 minute journey together, we will share stories and healthy practices of reflection, self care, and community care. Using stillness, sound, touch, vision, and imagination we will build a tool box of practices to carry with us into the future; into the future of self and community wellness.

9. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

WORKSHOP SESSION 5 – WEDNESDAY

1. Urban Indigenous Land Sovereignty: Restoring and Re-Storying

2. Teen Talk

Vyki Atallah

This workshop helps youth to understand that mental health is a continuum that ranges from mental wellness to mental illness. We will look at some common signs of anxiety and depression as well as stress. We will practice a few stress-reducing tools. We address stigma associated with mental distress as well as suicide, explore self-care and coping strategies as well as where to get support and resources.

In this 4Rs session, we will be trekking through mental, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts of self. We are aiming to create a space of stillness and ease in the midst of Conference hustle and bustle. Through this 75 minute journey together, we will share stories and healthy practices of reflection, self care, and community care. Using stillness, sound, touch, vision, and imagination we will build a tool box of practices to carry with us into the future; into the future of self and community wellness.

3. Cross-Cultural Connections in Nature: The Strong Like 2 People Model

Erinn Drage, Nicholas Castel

This workshop will be an interactive and integrated workshop that inspires youth to reconsider what Canadian identity really is. We will discuss topics such as multiculturalism, Canada’s 150th anniversary, connections in nature, and reconciliation. The goal of the workshop is to brainstorm ideas about how we as Canadian youth can take advantage of our opportunity to identify an ethos based on shared values and cross-cultural connections. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of their own beliefs about Canadian identity, as well as an increased understanding of their peers cultures. Nature and wilderness will be a major theme of the workshop as we explore the importance of utilizing Canada’s pristine natural environments as a setting for shared learning and experience.

Strong Like 2 People is a model of wilderness adventure that pairs Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in an exploration of nature, history and modern storytelling. Our vision is inspired by the late Tilicho Chief Jimmy Bruneau’s belief that Canadian identity must be founded on an equal balance of both traditional Aboriginal knowledge and modern contemporary Canadian values. In July 2017, the Strong Like 2 People team will embark on a cross-cultural expedition in Naats’ihch’oh National Park Reserve located in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories. Two urban youth from the south and two Sahtu Dene youth from the local communities will spend 3 weeks trekking, paddling, and camping their way across the park, taking in the traditional and ecological beauty of the region.

4. Métis Question

Sophie Moquin

This workshop will explore what is often referred to as the Métis question. Who is eligible for the Métis title and who is excluded. What does it mean to be Métis, back then and today. This workshop analyses what encourages youth to identify themselves as Métis and the obstacles we face in modern day. Being in the birthplace of the Métis, this workshop is an opportunity to look back at the roots and question, what happened? And how is it affecting the Métis people today

5. Zine-Making

6. Creative Resilience in Media

Danielle Black and Curtis Lefthand

Every person has a story, and each of us represent what resilience looks like. One might ask, “how do we define resiliency or reconciliation as a country?” when in fact what we should be asking is, “How do we define those within ourselves?” As we begin talking about reconciliation in Canada, it is important to shed light on our truths as Indigenous people. If we can’t be truthful and honest about our experiences, how can we continue on our journey towards reconciliation without understanding. One way towards a path of healing is to tell your story, but we believe that there are many ways to do so. Historically and traditionally, Indigenous people have continued their ways of life, educating, and preserving who they are through oral practice. However, we are facing a time where our ways have clearly felt and undergone assimilation and attempted genocide across cultures here on Turtle Island. On the other hand, in these moments, our resilience shines through brightly. By activating and mobilizing the technologies that surround us, we have many contemporary and effective ways to tell our stories, networking them nationally, and bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians through media. In our workshop, we would like to provide a safe space where we would discuss different forms of media (e.g: film, music, audio engineering, and podcasting) to reimagine the ways we tell our stories. We believe it is essential for youth to know where to begin, and where to start when they are searching for a place in the community of multimedia, or perhaps creating the community themselves. We want to give them the opportunity through exploring different creative outlets. We encourage stepping into a realm where your emotions, motivation, and influence can flow. From there, talking about different ways to starting out as grassroots to building your own initiative, collective or organization.Further, we would talk about the misrepresentations of Indigenous people in hollywood films, television, news broadcasts, and the music industry to demonstrate the importance of representation. Alternatively, we will display the works of Canadian Indigenous artists breaking through these walls and using their voices. By allowing and empowering our youth specifically to speak out or speak up, this opens the doors for releasing any suppression, intergenerational trauma, and isolation they may feel or be experiencing as urban or on reserve youth.

7. Lindsay Dupre

Wishes for Kanata

What are your wishes for the future of your community and for reconciliation in Canada? How can we support each other in making these visions happen? This workshop will explore the importance of youth in dreaming and shaping the future of this country. We will celebrate the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people who are advancing Indigenous rights and brainstorm our own ideas for projects, events and other initiatives that we can put into action after leaving the conference. We will use arts based approach to map our ideas and work collaboratively to plot steps and supports needed to make them happen. Opportunities for funding and leadership training will be shared as well as tips for becoming a social entrepreneur.

8. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

9. Sacredness of Nibi – Water is Life

Autumn Peltier

10.

11.

WORKSHOP SESSION 6- WEDNESDAY

1. Calling Home: Reconciliation in a Digital Age

Mercedes Peters and Mathew Buck

Mercedes Peters and Mathew Buck called home only hear a busy signal. A modern day Victor and Thomas, Mercedes and Mathew use the traditional method of storytelling to generate an atmosphere that is as healing as it can be uncomfortable. In this session, they work to debunk colonial myths about indigeneity and what it means to be a traditional person. Working from laptops across Turtle Island, “Calling Home” was created to address a need for our peoples return home and work with their traditional medicines to improve modern indigenous lives. A jaw-dropping, engaging, thought-provoking discussion about how to get moving, and inspire those around you that you have to see to believe!”

2. P.T.S.D. Past These Struggles Decipher

3. Breaking Down the Sexualization of Indigenous Women

4. Who Am I? Exploring Identity and Impacts of Colonialism

Ivana Yellowback

We will go over self-identity and the importance of self-awareness coming from an era of Residential Schools and post-colonialism. We will explore the importance of reconciliation through the reclamation of cultural identity and how this benefits society as not only a whole, but inter-personally.We will also explore the Child Welfare system within Manitoba and why 80% of the 11, 000 youth in care are of Indigenous descent.

5.

6. Teen Talk

Vyki Atallah

This workshop helps youth to understand that mental health is a continuum that ranges from mental wellness to mental illness. We will look at some common signs of anxiety and depression as well as stress. We will practice a few stress-reducing tools. We address stigma associated with mental distress as well as suicide, explore self-care and coping strategies as well as where to get support and resources.

In this 4Rs session, we will be trekking through mental, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts of self. We are aiming to create a space of stillness and ease in the midst of Conference hustle and bustle. Through this 75 minute journey together, we will share stories and healthy practices of reflection, self care, and community care. Using stillness, sound, touch, vision, and imagination we will build a tool box of practices to carry with us into the future; into the future of self and community wellness.

7. Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO) Community Organizing

Michael Champagne and Jenna Wirch

8. Empowering youth through indigenous storytelling

Oliver King

I would like to share my story of being an indigenous self-identifying two-spirited filmmaker who grew up on a reservation for most of my life. The idea of being a filmmaker was not apparent to me for a lot of my life, and for a time I did need to step away from it and think hard on the fact that I wanted to be the best I could be. Giving the youth an opportunity to see this potential in myself and in themselves I would like to create a vision board with them and showcase the talent here in Winnipeg with thing’s I’ve helped create and am working on.

9. The Flower Beadwork People: Métis Art & Dot Art Painting

Lindsay DuPré

“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” – Louis Riel, 1885This workshop will introduce participants to a number of Métis artists who use art as a tool for advocacy, knowledge preservation and healing. It will also explore the importance of beading, quillwork and other crafts in the history of Métis peoples and encourage participants to think about the role that art plays in their own lives and identities. Taking inspiration from the work of Christi Belcourt, everyone will have the opportunity to create their own dot art paintings.

10. Reclaiming Your Identity

Jessica Hulme

This workshop seeks to explain the impact of the Indian Act, colonization, and how they have led Indigenous Peoples to internalize oppression and racism. By starting with an explanation of the different categories of “status”, I establish an understanding of terminology, and also explain the various terms settler’s created to describe us, and their use and impact today. We have a discussion on cultural safety – specifically to do with terminology, how we identify ourselves, how we go about identifying others and the spaces in between. Then, I talk about “looking Aboriginal”, identity and race. This subject addresses not only people with status, but what struggles people without status experience, and also the relationship between the two. The internalized racism happening in our communities is a result of the concept of status, and the goal of colonization, and so this portion of the workshop seeks to call out those issues in an open way, to understand the positions of both sides, and the responsibility we have to each other to support and lift each others voices. This workshop also features discussions around overcoming oppression, healing and what we can learn from our ancestors about it, our personal definitions of reconciliation and how we work towards them, and an opportunity to start some dialogue around reading the Truth and Reconciliation Report.

11.

Decolonizing Violent Bodies (CHANGE)

Erin Grant

Canada created a discourse of identity about Indigenous women, a way of viewing them that was continually reproduced and validated through a colonial, patriarchal system. Non-Indigenous knowledge is built upon this framework, perpetuated endlessly. Indigenous women have been reduced to a series of stereotypes, easily digestible by settlers, into an image that is manageable and controlled by a nation-state. This paper argues that these disproportionately sexualized and racialized stereotypes are maintained throughout a Canadian history story rife with examples. Viewing Indigenous women as dissolute and sinister continues to rationalize a nation’s failure to bring them justice.

In Canada’s eagerness to engage Indigenous peoples in Reconciliation, it must weigh– wholly, and critically – its implementation of a patriarchal, colonial system onto Indigenous peoples as its own doing. It is not enough to refer to a still-functioning system as existing only as a dark chapter in history; Canada must recognize that it has, and still continues to, produce a racist conception of Indigenous femininity, denying them justice. It does this today in Quebec, with the government’s refusal to address allegations of physical and sexual abuse by police against Indigenous women. On August 3, 2016 the Canadian Government, in partnership with the Native Women’s Association of Canada, launched a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. A National Inquiry fulfills one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, number 41: to investigate and to hold the Indian Residential School system culpable in the intergenerational violence it has caused. This National Inquiry falls under the project of Reconciliation. Reconciliation remains hollow reiteration of past commissions and inquiries if it does not address how race intersects with gender, how this is manifested in legislation, and how Reconciliation may undermine rather than serve the project of decolonization.

Aboriginal Entrepreneurs

Joe Taylor

The student members of the Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneur Program would like to share their experiences, projects, and philanthropic mindset with the youth at this very important conference. Entrepreneurism can be a vital piece of the puzzle to encourage reconciliation, acceptance, and engagement amongst Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. In a short period of time, a variety of our students have been interviewed by CBC News, CTV News, and APTN National News. They have made an audition to the Dragon’s Den T.V. show. They have taken part in trade shows, made presentations to various influential groups, and had the opportunity to meet and interact with a multitude of successful, motivating, and inspiring individuals. They have started businesses, invented products, and “learned through doing,” This is the story they would like to share.